Other views: Should justices preserve Voting Rights Act of '65?

Los Angeles Times

Rightly regarded as one of the most lustrous legacies of the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws discrimination in voting nationwide, but it also requires that states with a history of denying minorities the right to vote obtain the approval of a federal court or the U.S. Justice Department before changing election procedures. This "preclearance" provision, contained in Section 5 of the act, has been repeatedly reauthorized by Congress - most recently in 2006.

...Supporters of the Voting Rights Act fear that conservative members of the court - and perhaps not only conservatives - are poised to rule that the law violates the prerogatives of states that no longer practice the sort of blatant discrimination that inspired the original legislation.

That would be a mistake of historic proportions. It may no longer be true that African Americans registering to vote are required to face down hostile election officials or endure literacy tests, or that city councils and legislatures in the South are all-white and determined to remain so. But subtler forms of discrimination against blacks and other minorities persist - such as gerrymandering to dilute their voting power or relocating polling stations to make them less accessible to minorities - and Congress has reasonably determined that they are more of a problem in some places than in others. The court should respect that judgment.

Bloomberg

Problems with registration procedures, poorly trained poll workers, inadequate voting hours, accessibility and other factors impede voting for millions of Americans across many states. Some of these problems may be rooted in racial discrimination. Many others are not. All have the effect of undermining the right to vote. The Shelby County case is an occasion to acknowledge how widespread these problems are and to instruct Congress to remedy them. The Voting Rights Act, flawed though it may be, has been an essential tool in the advance of American democracy. But the promise of universal suffrage remains unfulfilled. So maybe the question isn't whether it's time to end the federal government's special oversight of the South. It's how to extend that level of attention to the whole country.

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Other views: Should justices preserve Voting Rights Act of '65?

Rightly regarded as one of the most lustrous legacies of the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws discrimination in voting nationwide, but it also requires that states with a